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Topic: of table saws and fingers (Read 1403 times)

I lost a fingernail and some flesh due to a table saw incident (all precautions were in place. But shit happens). The doctors had to remove the remainder of my index finger nail and stitched two flappers together (2 stitches total), no bones were broken, or exposed. I am wondering off anyone out there in Neclimbs-land has dealt with a similar injury? I am very fortunate to still have my fingers. But, man, am I itching to climb. I am able to ride my road bike, which keeps me mildly sane. But, you know..........

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someone dropped a steamer in the gene pool

"climbing with a deep knowledge of what we are doing is what we all want to climb high and safe" Champoing

sorry to hear this... fortunately I've never had that happen, but I've come close... glad you didn't loose any bone. I'm sure it's going to take some time to heal. maybe you can use a glove on that hand for a while. maybe cut off all but that finger on the glove.

I came close back in February. I was free-handing a short tapered extension jamb and it kicked back and just about took off my left thumbnail. It definitely broke more than just the end of the nail. The blade was never close to my thumb, fortunately. It took a few weeks before I could fully use the thumb. I can't begin to guess how long it will take before you're 100%. Good luck!!

Been there, done that, with some real consequences.Ripping strips of cedar, 3/8's wide by 6' long for screen doors I was building. Got into a rhythm, as I had about 20 to do, got halfway through, and just as I was reaching for the push stick to finish the cut with my other hand, I involuntarily kept pushing my work into the blade. BANG!! I felt like someone had hit my right shoulder with a baseball bat. Huge stripe of blood flies up, across my shirt, along the ceiling above the table saw: I had run my right thumb into the blade. Sliced a kerf down the middle of my thumb, and opened up the end of my thumb spectacularly. I took one quick look at it then grabbed a rag I had been using to wipe off excess glue from glue-ups, wrapped the end of my thumb closed, then grabbed the rest of the cloth in my hand, closed my fingers to hold it shut. Put my hand on top of my head, to keep it elevated, then got in my truck and drove straight to the hospital.Came home 4 hours later with 32 stitches holding together a large V-shaped cut segmenting my thumb pad. (fingerprint would never look the same again...)Lots of pain killers and a few weeks later, it had healed up pretty well. That portion of my thumb lost all feeling, a triangle shape about 1/2" by 3/4". Made it awkward to hold anything that I had to pinch, but didn't have any real issues until the following winter.Then a very Nasty Surprise. Any time it got below freezing, I would get shooting pains, like the Screaming Barfies, as if someone was twisting a knife into the end of my thumb. Skiing, Mountain Biking, Climbing, whatever, became awful. I could never let it get cold.That lasted about 5 years, getting gradually less sensitive to the cold. Now it's ok, I can Ice Climb, bike, whatever, it feels like the rest of my fingers. But man, that really sucked for a while.

I have had a couple close calls. Took a chunk out of a tip and lost a fingernail in the process. I totally nailed myself with a brad nailer years ago. It was a nasty mix of puncture and bruising was taking forever to heal; had to open it up myself and debride it.

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Ed Matt" I release my attention: because of you now I am in danger!!! " -Champ

i bet virtually everyone who has used a table saw extensively has had an incident.

Not true! Come on guys, use your riving knife! If your saw doesn't have one or can't be fit with one ditch the saw and buy a new one.

Sorry to hear that Punx. In time you will be back on the rock. I popped a tendon in my middle finger once and could not use it for months. I taped it up so it was unusable when i went climbing. After a while i got used to not using it and it became natural. Maybe you can find a way to protect it while climbing.

I've spent many hundreds of hours using table saws and jointers. I have a 16 inch jointer which has never had a guard on it;

I built the four knife cutterhead, which goes at around 5000 RPM. I really don't like guards, since I think they give a false sense of security.

Anyway; never had an accident with machine tools; chainsaws yes.

When I was 14, I blew the tips of my thumb and the finger next to it off with explosives. Apparently the accident didn't affectmy climbing. I always wanted to play the piano, but I'm sure the shortened fingers would of hampered my learning curve.